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Semi-retired psychologist shares his experience.

The Big 6 + 6

The Big 6 + 6

This is something that I saved from something that was posted somewhere. 🙂

The big 6 + 6 is from the Morningside model of generative instruction – Basic component motor skills taught before training more complex component skills. The complete list is: Reach, point, touch, grasp, place, release, push, pull, twist, squeeze, tap, and shake. The idea is that all fine motor skills stem from at least one of these 12, usually more in combination, so teaching all the components will make learning the more complex chains easier.

Morningside’s a great model and shares a great deal in common with ABA/AVB (lots of the same ideas, procedures, etc.). The basic tenets of Morningside are to ID the component elements of an instructional objective (parts that comprise the whole); to measure their frequency until the kid achieves true mastery, which they define as retention, endurance, application, performance, and stability, or REAPS. Once they’ve broken things down into components (sound familiar?) they establish each component behavior through contingent exchanges between the kid and the teacher, increasing accuracy and frequency. Then they teach to specific set fluency criteria, chaining the component skills together into composite skills, and start generalizing them to “the real world.” The ultimate goal is to get the kids to expert level with these skills. Oh, and the Morningside model is guided by data, too. That’s a brief version, to be sure, but the gist of it is there. I’m sure it all sounds eerily familiar! There’s a good, more complete summary of Morningside in this reference: